Awful Nice

Very funny movie especially if you have a dumba** little brother. It started out the second scene with Dave eating a Deep Fried Breaded Pork Loin Sandwich if you are from Middle America you probably know what I am talking about. It's one of the few things I miss about the Midwest and it looked wonderful. I thought the relationship between the brothers was a lot of fun and yes the fighting was predictable and over the top but I was thoroughly entertained by the ridiculous behavior. There are some very funny and kinda dirty shout outs to the "Wild Things" movie. Christopher Meloni is great as the squirrel loving not so legitimate business partner of Dave and Jim's dearly departed father. Toss in Branson Russian Mafia, prostitutes, a lot of alcohol and a bunch of other silly stuff. Don't take it (or yourself) too seriously and you will have a good time.

Sometimes a story played out on film serves as a motivator or is inspiring or just plain entertaining, however in the case of the independent film Awful Nice, I am still attempting to categorize it. The story begins with Jim (James Pumphrey) retrieving his younger brother Dave (Alex Rennie) to return home and attend the memorial services for their recently deceased father. The condition and location in which Jim finds Dave was the first indication that somebody has issues. This film did something that has never happened to me before, I laughed uproariously at some very funny sequences, but once the film was over I was left feeling unfulfilled. Usually if it is a good comedy, the emotion elicited is upbeat and cheery but not with this film. The characters Dave and Jim both reminded me of how competitive brothers can be having grown up in a household with three brothers myself, but the incessant arguing and fighting was just too much. I continuously asked myself if Jim is the smart one why does he keep following advice from Dave. And then you realize that after a while some of the lunacy starts to make some sense. I do wonder what inspired writer Alex Rennie to create this outlandish road trip, brothers bonding story, and whether the character Dave was based in part on Alex's own life. The reason that I ask this question is because Mr. Rennie was so convincing with his particular kind of crazy as Dave. He was quick witted, rationalized everything from a spoiled brat point of view and took no responsibility for anything in his life all while guilting Jim into mindless submission. Mr. Rennie is either a really good actor or he really is Dave. I've never been to Branson, but there was a huge inference that it is overrun with Russian Mafia and prostitution, which is the world that Jim and Dave's father's business partner seemed to be very much a part of. Since I watch a lot of Law and Order reruns it was easy to spot Christopher Meloni (Jon Charbineau) in spite of the mustache, the horrible accent, and the worse wig ever. He did a great job of portraying a sleazy businessman not that he did anything that was sleazy, he just really looked the part. I still do not know what the title related to, I suppose they used Awful Nice because My Idiot Brother was already taken.

I grabbed this as an iTunes 99 cent rental based on the trailer.

Aside from Swingers, this was quite possibly the worst production value I've seen in a film with this kind of distribution. The audio quality was terrible, the lighting was amateur, the editing was simple, and overall, it was just really low budget.

But I watched the entire film and laughed the entire time. The acting was great, the script was fantastic, and the characters were perfect. The location could not have been better for the story, and the use of music (i.e. Dr. Dog) was spot on.

Which all goes to show, when you have a good story and good actors, you could shoot it on VHS and be successful. Film is about storytelling, not resolution or film grain or VFX or all-star casts.

This film succeeded in telling a compelling story with flying colors, and made me laugh (hard) for 90 minutes. A+++

This movie is a one of a hell to classify . For now its a comedy but i found it hard to keep my smile through most of the film . Sure it has its funny moments , Some of them are even better than in most of the famous comedies but i wouldn't call it a comedy . As far as i can see its a drama about brothers relationships. The actors in this movie will be new for most of the viewers but they didn't fail to deliver a good acting. The plot is pretty nice and even though i got a little bored like 15 min before the ending , I would recommend to watch this movie with beers and only if you've got nothing else in mind .One thing for sure , It doesn't deserve the 5 on the site.

Imagine Step Brothers meets Mouse Hunt; that's Awful Nice.

Sibling rivalries are ripe territory for comedies. It's the sort of situation where years-long resentments boil over and make a general mess of things. It's funny because it's family, and it's more spiteful because it's family, and there's just a bit of sadness in there too (since it's family).

There's an example of this early on in Awful Nice. Jim (James Pumphrey) and Dave (Alex Rennie) are the squabbling siblings in question. They're having dinner with family following their dad's funeral. After a toast, Jim and Dave sip their champagne. They they eye each other, they realize that they're inexplicably trying to gulp their champagne faster. The champagne done, they each pick up their glasses of beer. Then the water. The race continues with a gravy boat. And then they try to beat the s**t out of each other as their relatives look on shocked. (There's an Alonzo Mourning rookie card involved in this too, one that I may have in a box somewhere.)

These kinds of absurd escalations into slapstick (and cartoon violence) are what Awful Nice does Best. That isn't to say it's dialog driven humor isn't spot on as well. There's a certain quickness to the back and forths between the two brothers in this movie that reminds me of Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn in Swingers. The dialogue comes fast, the insults and jabs arrive quicker, and there's a sense of personality that arises from comic beat to comic beat.

Beyond the verbal and physical comedy in Awful Nice, there's a good knack for little details and sight gags. There's the pet tarantula in the opening scene which helps lend an extra layer of sordidness to what Dave's life in the tepee must have been like. A later throwaway moment involving Tabasco sauce also builds a sense of rough-and-tumble history. In the background in an office scene, there's a piece of art featuring a bear driving a speedboat.

Awful Nice shoots from gag to gag rapidly, which makes the movie breeze by, but the last third feels like it's maybe lacking something toward the end. It's not bad and it thankfully doesn't become sentimental in an unearned way. They could have easily gone there, but the movie is resistant to such easy, feel-good moments that would undermine the bitterness of it's main relationship. I think that's admirable, actually, since it'd be easy to go for some easy emotional beat and wrap up the film with a bow.

But the resolution does come a little too easy and it's not as satisfying as everything that leads up to it. In some ways what happens is telegraphed well in advance, and for a film where the jokes seem to come out of nowhere, something that I could see coming feels a bit disappointing. In that respect, I wish the plot was treated more like the jokes in the film, that there'd be a sense of surprise to both the set-up and the punchline.

And yet I can't completely hold this movie's faults against it, since it did it's job as a comedy and as a story. It made me laugh throughout, and it made me care about the characters, and ultimately, that's what matters. I highly recommend giving this movie a spin at your local Netflix.